Tony Flanders

January 20, 1942 - April 30, 2012

Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention
of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body,

But, rather
To skid in broadside,
thoroughly used up,
totally worn out and loudly proclaiming

- WOW - what a ride !

- - - -

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It is meant for anyone who wishes to leave their thoughts, wishes, prayers in honour of Tony

Focus groups are about involving people’s stories; their purposes and possibilities, into your mission.

The command model is a one-way top-down effort that tries to inform, educate, persuade and reassure;

Focus groups use the communication model to engage people, listen, dialogue and synthesize to common cause.

It’s about understanding what makes a difference to people. It’s about understanding how your story meshes with their stories into one clear, coherent and compelling mission together. Relationship management involves getting “buy-in” through engaging the stories of your people - employees and customers - into one story - your story.

Focus groups help organize supports and shape demands for policy, programs, issues and strategies. Focus groups help you understand why people behave the way they do; and commit to what they do; they help you understand the meanings and motivations that shape the “buy-in” decision of the people you depend on for success.

You didn’t get to where you are without some considerable experience with people; you have a track record of good judgement. In these challenging times, focus groups help you continue to move ahead with the judgmental confidence you need.

Focus groups are what you do when you don’t know what to do; finding the meaning in the data, exploring in depth the attitudes, opinions, beliefs and values that inform the  “buy-in” to your mission.

You can manage complexity but you have to lead change; focus groups are about leadership of people toward a shared outcome, a common cause, a shared purpose.

Focus groups are intended to provide knowledgeable input to strategic approaches to any program requiring you to engage people to your mission.

Focus groups don’t give you answers; they give you confidence in your direction, that you are asking the right questions and engaging the right people in the right way. They also demonstrate to your people that you care about them and are listening to them, which is a motivation in itself.

Focus groups are a commercial activity intended to enhance …

Performance —- Productivity —- Profits

Strategic HR managers and executives may not have direct power but you do have influence. I’ve discovered a way to increase your influence and get the results you want.

Your people live in an age of anxiety; about their jobs, their families, their finances, their lives. They are under constant pressure to perform. They feel insecure and threatened. they need your understanding in order to commit to performance.

Focus groups with your people enable engagement and give you “evidence” to support your strategic planning and programming in such areas as:

• lower absenteeism and turnover
• enhanced quality and efficiency
• change management
• recruitment and retention
• career pathing
• employee engagement and commitment
• incentives and compensation
• collective bargaining
• training and development
• safety and wellness
• employee satisfaction
• best fit and best practices issue management, PLUS

Engaging and listening to your people communicates that management is listening and values their contribution. You can uncover new facts about your organization and it’s relationships with customers, suppliers, etc. You can gain insight into your corporate culture and the meanings and motivations of the people who shape your success. You can learn the attributes to measure in your metrics and surveys with confidence that you are not data blind and missing something important.

Discover the value of listening to your front-line workers - they know more than anyone about how your organization is performing; and where it can improve.

Strategic HR managers and executives may not have direct power but you do have influence. I’ve discovered a way to increase your influence and get the results you want.

Your people live in an age of anxiety; about their jobs, their families, their finances, their lives. They are under constant pressure to perform. They feel insecure and threatened. they need your understanding in order to commit to performance.

Focus groups with your people enable engagement and give you “evidence” to support your strategic planning and programming in such areas as:

• lower absenteeism and turnover
• enhanced quality and efficiency
• change management
• recruitment and retention
• career pathing
• employee engagement and commitment
• incentives and compensation
• collective bargaining
• training and development
• safety and wellness
• employee satisfaction
• best fit and best practices issue management, PLUS

Engaging and listening to your people communicates that management is listening and values their contribution. You can uncover new facts about your organization and it’s relationships with customers, suppliers, etc. You can gain insight into your corporate culture and the meanings and motivations of the people who shape your success. You can learn the attributes to measure in your metrics and surveys with confidence that you are not data blind and missing something important.

Discover the value of listening to your front-line workers - they know more than anyone about how your organization is performing; and where it can improve.

Strategic HR managers and executives may not have direct power but you do have influence. I’ve discovered a way to increase your influence and get the results you want.

Your people live in an age of anxiety; about their jobs, their families, their finances, their lives. They are under constant pressure to perform. They feel insecure and threatened. they need your understanding in order to commit to performance.

Focus groups with your people enable engagement and give you “evidence” to support your strategic planning and programming in such areas as:

• lower absenteeism and turnover
• enhanced quality and efficiency
• change management
• recruitment and retention
• career pathing
• employee engagement and commitment
• incentives and compensation
• collective bargaining
• training and development
• safety and wellness
• employee satisfaction
• best fit and best practices issue management, PLUS

Engaging and listening to your people communicates that management is listening and values their contribution. You can uncover new facts about your organization and it’s relationships with customers, suppliers, etc. You can gain insight into your corporate culture and the meanings and motivations of the people who shape your success. You can learn the attributes to measure in your metrics and surveys with confidence that you are not data blind and missing something important.

Discover the value of listening to your front-line workers - they know more than anyone about how your organization is performing; and where it can improve.

Strategic HR managers and executives may not have direct power but you do have influence. I’ve discovered a way to increase your influence and get the results you want.

Your people live in an age of anxiety; about their jobs, their families, their finances, their lives. They are under constant pressure to perform. They feel insecure and threatened. they need your understanding in order to commit to performance.

Focus groups with your people enable engagement and give you “evidence” to support your strategic planning and programming in such areas as:

• lower absenteeism and turnover
• enhanced quality and efficiency
• change management
• recruitment and retention
• career pathing
• employee engagement and commitment
• incentives and compensation
• collective bargaining
• training and development
• safety and wellness
• employee satisfaction
• best fit and best practices issue management, PLUS

Engaging and listening to your people communicates that management is listening and values their contribution. You can uncover new facts about your organization and it’s relationships with customers, suppliers, etc. You can gain insight into your corporate culture and the meanings and motivations of the people who shape your success. You can learn the attributes to measure in your metrics and surveys with confidence that you are not data blind and missing something important.

Discover the value of listening to your front-line workers - they know more than anyone about how your organization is performing; and where it can improve.

Times are indeed getting tougher and likely to lead to a changed world in many ways.

Who will you become?

How will you get there?

Some plain and fancy thinking can help unlock the value inherent in your employees’ knowledge and the value proposition you create for your customers’ changing needs and wants.

You also need a conceptual tool kit to understand and interpret what your respondents are telling you.

Top-down communications are no longer are enough.

You’ll need to engage, listen. dialogue and synthesize with a number of target groups.

Living systems - plain and fancy - with a fishy client story to illustrate.

As always - You are invited to comment; in podcast, video or text. I promise not to slit my throat if you don’t like me.

When everything is unknown, your values can become power fields.

This is why I’m always stressing the importance of understanding.

Understanding let’s you generate truths about the system and apply the model to working positive changes in an uncertain world.

Recruiting, Retention and Employee Engagement

Strategic HR people know that it’s a waste to pretend toward a recruiting strategy without a retention strategy … and that both are driven by the fundamental character of the organization and it’s leaders.

This becomes a problem because of change: changing attitudes of young workers, globalization and competition, aging work force with changing work/life demands; volatile economies, etc.

Strategic HR has now become, in many ways, social marketing, branding the organization as an Employer of Choice. This involves a view of HR marketing as engaging a person and valuing the buy-in decision for an employee’s engagement.

All purchase is risk. Just as the hiring decision entails risk, buying-in to a job is a risky commitment. To minimize risk, perfect relationships involve matching expectations and commitments – do your commitments to me match my expectations of you; do your expectations match my commitments. Managing the relationship involves attending to this getting-giving compact continually.

One change I’ve seen in my work: it was common to see one-way top-down client communications: inform, educate, persuade and reassure; now sophisticated clients understand effective leadership involves practice intended to: engage, listen, dialogue and synthesize.

Focus group research with your people allows you to develop an integrated picture of your staff, their commitment, their engagement. Focus groups use depth interviewing to probe the meanings and motivations that shape the attitudes and behaviors that drive your organization. The group process helps bring out and articulate conflict and consensus. The objective, independent interviewer has no bias to bring to these proceedings, creating a safe place to bring up trust issues and other potentially dangerous matters.

Focus groups are about the stories that make up your collective working life. Stories matter.

My job is to build on your strength so that your story matters most.